Lin Pao-Yen, Huang Yu-Chi, Hung Chi-Fa
Department of Psychiatry, Kaohsiung Chang Gung Memorial Hospital and Chang Gung University College of Medicine, Kaohsiung, Taiwan; Center for Translational Research in Biomedical Sciences, Kaohsiung Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Kaohsiung, Taiwan.
Department of Psychiatry, Kaohsiung Chang Gung Memorial Hospital and Chang Gung University College of Medicine, Kaohsiung, Taiwan.
J Psychiatr Res. 2016 May;76:84-93. doi: 10.1016/j.jpsychires.2016.01.015. Epub 2016 Feb 4.
Accelerated telomere shortening is associated with stress-related cell damage and aging. Patients with depression have been shown to have shortened life expectancy and to be associated with multiple age-related systemic diseases. Previous studies have examined leukocyte telomere length (LTL) in patients with depression, but have shown inconsistent results.
We conducted meta-analyses by pooling relevant results strictly from all eligible case-control studies for cross-sectional comparison of LTL between depressive patients and control subjects (16 studies involving 7207 subjects). The effect sizes (shown as Hedges' g) of each individual study were synthesized by using a random effects model.
Our analysis revealed telomere length is significantly shorter in subjects with depression in comparison to healthy controls (Hedges' g = -0.42, p = 1 × 10(-5), corresponding to r = -0.21). Significant heterogeneity among studies examining LTL in subjects with depression was found (Q = 116.07, df = 16, I(2) = 86.21%, p < 1 × 10(-8)), which can possibly be explained by methods used in measuring telomere length (Q = 18.42, df = 2, p = 1 × 10(-4)). There was no significant publication bias, nor moderating effect of age, female percentage, or illness duration of depression on synthesized results.
Our results support the hypothesis that depression is associated with accelerated cell aging. Future studies are required to clarify whether the association is mediated through environmental stress, and whether effective treatment can halt cell aging.
端粒加速缩短与应激相关的细胞损伤和衰老有关。抑郁症患者的预期寿命缩短，且与多种年龄相关的全身性疾病有关。以往的研究检测了抑郁症患者的白细胞端粒长度（LTL），但结果并不一致。
我们通过严格汇总所有符合条件的病例对照研究的相关结果进行荟萃分析，以对抑郁症患者和对照受试者的LTL进行横断面比较（16项研究，涉及7207名受试者）。使用随机效应模型综合每项个体研究的效应量（以Hedges' g表示）。
我们的分析显示，与健康对照相比，抑郁症患者的端粒长度显著缩短（Hedges' g = -0.42，p = 1×10⁻⁵，对应r = -0.21）。在检测抑郁症患者LTL的研究中发现了显著的异质性（Q = 116.07，df = 16，I² = 86.21%，p < 1×10⁻⁸），这可能可以用测量端粒长度的方法来解释（Q = 18.42，df = 2，p = 1×10⁻⁴）。没有显著的发表偏倚，年龄、女性百分比或抑郁症病程对综合结果也没有调节作用。
我们的结果支持抑郁症与细胞加速衰老有关的假设。未来需要开展研究以阐明这种关联是否通过环境应激介导，以及有效治疗是否能阻止细胞衰老。
